It was not, therefore, the Effects of your Confidence in Mrs. Masham, but the Prefumption of your own Strength and Importance that lulled you in Security fo long: 'Tis true you tell us, that, when you had obferved, fhe grew more by and referved, you imputed it to her peculiar Morofenefs of Temper: And that when he had taken the Liberty to marry without your Advice or Consent, you was willing to interpret it to be Bashfulness and want of Breeding rather than any Thing worse. I fay, Madam, yoù here set yourself forth as incapable of Jealoufy, as void of all Apprehenfion. But as foon as the Alarm is taken, your Paffions are all rous'd: And the very great Concern you immediately betray, fufficiently proves how much depended on the grand Point of keeping the Queen entirely to your felf. But the whole Scene between your Grace and your new Rival, as well as the Paffages connected with it, though low and groveling in themselves, are too curious and artificial to be paffed over without pointing at such PartiCulars as ferve to authorize this Conclufion.

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• The first Thing, which led me into Enquiries about her Conduct, was, the being told (in the Summer of 1707,) that my • Coufin Hill was privately married to Mr. Mafham. I went to her and asked her if it were true. She owned it was, and begged my Pardon for having concealed it from me, As much Reafon as I had to take ill this * Reserve in her Behaviour, I was willing to impute it to Bashfulness and Want of Breeding, rather than to any Thing worse. I embraced her with my ufual Tenderness, and very heartily wifhed her Joy; and then turning the Difcourfe, entered into her Concerns in as friendly a Manner as * poffible, contriving how to accommodate her with Lodgings, by removing her Sister into fome of my own. I then enquired of • her very kindly, whether the Queen knew

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of her Marriage; and very innocently of fered her my Service, if the needed it, to make that Matter eafy. She had by this Time learnt the Art of Diffimulation pretty well, and anfwered with an Air of Uncon cernedness, that the Bed-Chamber-Women • bad

had already acquainted the Queen with it, hoping by this Anfwer to divert any farther Examination into the Matter. But I went PRESENTLY to the Queen and asked her, why fhe had not been fo kind as to tell me of my Coufin's Marriage, EXPOSTULATING ¿ with her upon the Point, and putting her in Mind of what fhe ufed often to say to me out of Montaigne, That it was no Breach of Promife of Secrefy to tell fuch a • Friend any Thing, because it was no more

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than telling it to one's felf. All the Anfwer I could obtain from her Majefty was this, I have a hundred Times bid Mafham tell it you, and he would not.

The Conduct both of the Queen and of Mrs. Mafham, convinced me that there was fome Mystery in the Affair, and thereupon I fet myself to enquire as particularly as I could into it. And in lefs than a WEEK'S TIME, I difcovered, That my Coufin was become an abfolute Favourite; that the Queen herself was prefent at her Marriage in Dr. Arbuthnot's Lodgings, at which Time her Majefty had called for a U 2 · round

round Sum out of the Privy-Purfe; that • Mrs. Masham came often to the Queen,

when the Prince was asleep, and was ge

nerally two Hours every Day in private with her: And I likewife then discovered

beyond all Dispute Mr. HARLEY'S * CORRESPONDENCE and INTEREST AT COURT BY MEANS OF THIS WOMAN. 'I was ftruck with Aftonishment at such 'an Inftance of INGRATITUDE, and should not have believed, if there had been any Room left for doubting.

'My Lord Marlborough was at first no less incredulous than I, as appears by the following Paragraph of a Letter from him, in • Anfwer to one from me on this Subject.

Meldeft June 3, 1707.

The wifeft Thing is to have to do with as few People as poffible. If you are fure that Mrs. Mafham fpeaks of BUSINESS to

the

That Mr. Harley made ufe of the Heifer occafionally, according the Phrafe of thofe Times, is, I believe, fearce to be difputed: But that he attain'd his Intereft at Court by Mrs. Moham only, is already difprov'd, Pag. 217.

the Queen, I should think, you might with

fome Caution tell her of it, which would do good. For she certainly must be grateful and will mind what

you say.'

Thus to Talk of Bufiness to the Queen, to have an Intimacy with Mr. Harley, to share in her Majesty's Favour, and to have private Conversations with her, were Crimes of the first Magnitude in Mrs. Masham, and fo many Trefpaffes on the PECULIAR of Madam the Dutchefs of M------.

But not fatisfied with having traced out the Matter of Fact, your Grace proceeds to inflame the Indictment, by giving us to understand that this heinous Intimacy was of long standing, as follows.

It became eafy now to decypher many Particulars, which had hitherto remained mysterious; and my Reflection quickly • brought to my Mind many Paffages, which had feemed odd and unaccountable, but had left no Impreffions of Sufpicion or Jealoufy. Particularly I remembered that a long while before this, being with the Queen, (to whom I had gone very pri- . vately

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